The specialist builder. An externally fired Hunslet built by Freddie Freemans seen trundling a Border Counties train through the principal station on Stanley Jones' line at Whetstone. (photo Jack Wheldon)
	The atmosphere of garden steam. An externally fired model of the single-Farrlie 'Snowdon Ranger' by Archangel Models lifts its safety valve as it waits on Peter Dobson's line at Hampstead.

mindless regularity. A ratchet device on the lubricator can be set to determine the frequency of the strokes actually employed to deliver oil. Unfortunately, mechanical lubric-ators are rather bulky and difficult to accom-modate on little engines,, but are to be recommended for large ones. The hydrostatic lubricator is the type more usually fitted in Gauges 0 and 1. It consists of a reservoir of oil to which live steam is admitted through a tiny hole. This steam condenses in the reservoir, sinks to the bottom, and so displaces oil which is obliged to quit its erstwhile home and take its chance travelling along the steam pipe. To its consternation, in no time at all it finds itself in the pushing and shoving world of the valves and pistons, and thinks itself lucky to be eventually ejected up the chimney, whereupon it spreads itself around on the upper surface of the engine and the roofs of closely following coaches,

A curious feature of hydrostatic lubricators is their individualism. Some are quite mean with their oil; others can't wait to give it away. These quirks seem to depend partly upon their location, for if the lubricator finds itself in a hot spot the steam is reluctant to condense in it, while in a cool spot it takes all the steam it can get and generously exchanges it for oil. They repay careful siting.

What else is there to say? Most small scale steamers are unsprung but ride perfectly well. Models fitted with springing tend to be expensive. There is a great deal of variety in couplings and buffing gear on narrow gauge models. Chain couplings although realistic are fiddly to operate, and there is a lot to be said for the old Hornby Gauge 0 and automatic coupling. Centre buffers were widely used on narrow gauge stock, but on models can cause difficulties when stock is being prop-elled; wooden side buffers give the best shunting performance. Detailing, in the form of handrails, fully modelled smokebox doors, cab fittings such as pressure gauges and whistles, lamp brackets, etc., will depend largely upon price. Refinement rapidly sends up the cost of building a steamer. Small parts may have to be riveted on as on the prototype; pressure gauges of .3/4in. face dia-meter reading up to 150 psi currently cost about £6.50 plus the cost of the syphon. 1 hope that the reviews in this series will help would-be steam operators to appreciate some of the problems that loco builders have to solve in offering models that both work well and look reasonably elegant!

Safety

I was feeling pleased about completing the foregoing when Dave added that it might be a good idea to say some words about safety. Come come, I replied, we are all responsible adults, aren't we? But he told me of the man who kept his boiler water and his white spirit in identical containers in the workshop, in consequence of which the boiler was filled with white spirit one day, and took fire as soon as the safety valve lifted. The very next morning Tom Cooper of Merlin Models rang up and said would I believe it, but a locomotive had just been returned to him on which someone had soldered the safety valve up solid, with a view to boosting the working pressure. It needs only one nasty accident, he remarked sapiently, to set the hobby right back. We'd have do-gooders petitioning Parliament for the licensing and local government control of all garden railway operators.

While it is possible to get a nasty knock on the little finger from a whirling flycrank, it is the boiler and the fire that can, if treated in careless and/or foolish ways, pose a risk of danger. Our models, being constructed of prototypical materials, are very strong, but so is steam under pressure, while the fire on the engine should be treated with as much respect as the fire in the domestic hearth.

With regard to the fire, I suppose the basic rule is to store methylated spirit in a seques-tered spot, and to dole out the amount for current needs before raising steam. The small container used for placing fuel in the loco's fuel tank should be fitted with a dispensing tube. It is most unwise to pour meths into the small filler-hole on the engine from an open bottle, even using a funnel.

With regard to boilers - never tamper with the safety valve. Remember the Best Friend of Charieston; the Eclipse; the Goliath; the Wolverton disaster, and old Number 97 of the Rhymney Railway. If it is desired to up-rate the boiler, then, after whatever work has been done on it, it must be given a hydraulic test to twice the anticipated working pressure, the results being observed with the help of a large-diameter test pressure gauge.

And if major surgery is performed upon a boiler, any soldering must be done with hard, silver solder of a correct grade. If the original boiler was assembled with soft solder, it must not be up-rated. In any case, soft solder and silver solder 'won't go together'. While on this topic it is worth mentioning that since the recent sensational rise in the prices of silver (due to some shenanigans on the silver market by a Texas millionaire) there have appeared in tool suppliers' shops a number of 'cheap' silver solders. Knowledgeable shop assistants will warn customers that these solders, while of a high melting point, are quite unsuitable for holding boilers together under pressure. If boiler work is to be attempted, only the proper materials of the best quality will do-even if it does make the job seem expensive. It is also advisable to consult one of the standard works on model boilermaking before touching a tool; there is available a book on loco boilers by Martin Evans, and a very comprehensive one on all kinds of boilers and materials by K. N. Harris.

This, I hope, covers the field; adequately if not comprehensively, perhaps. The first re-view in the series will follow like a substantial joint after the present ration of what 1 hope is not merely soup. This first steam review will deal with the Lindale assembly kit of the 0-6-OT 'Caledonia', in prototype a 3ft. gauge locomotive, and scaled by Lindale to run on either Gauge 0 or Gauge 1.

Go to the previous page...